LETTER: Art, academ classes deserve more attention, accessibility

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by Matthew Chrisman

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To the editor:

Recently I have been witness to and have experienced what I think is a pretty big problem at Rice.

Last semester, as a freshman, I took two of the "Big Three" (having APed out of chemistry), humanities, philosophy and German.

And as it turned out, I ended up liking my philosophy and humanities courses more than my science and math courses.

So when registering this semester, I decided to follow my heart a little more and try to take an upper- level writing course to see if I really do like writing as much as I think I do.

I had passed the English Competency Exam and had AP English credit, so I registered for English 306 after the professor assured me that there would certainly be plenty of writing in this course.

I got excited over winter break about this chance to test my hand at writing.

However, I showed up the first day and there were 20 people crammed into a small room.

The professor told us that he was going to limit the class size to 12, which, by the way, I think is completely appropriate in a class of that nature.

Naturally, the professor gave preference to seniors, and then juniors, and then sophomores until there was no room left for us lowly freshmen.

My next option was to try to get in English 304, a poetry class, but after my first experience, I didn't have much hope.

And I was correct in thinking that I wouldn't get in the class.

During the first class meeting, the professor said that 30 people had pre-registered for the course and she could only keep 15.

And this time, all freshmen and sophomores were asked to leave.

My question for the English Department is, if twice as many people registered for a class as were going to be allowed in the class, why aren't there two sections of the class to accommodate the demand?

I understand that Rice is more oriented to the sciences than to the arts, but obviously there is a desire among some of the students to take writing and creative writing courses, and the English Department is failing to meet this need.

I don't pay as much as I do to come to Rice and not be able to take the courses that I want.

Matthew Chrisman

WRC '99

This item appeared in the Opinion section of the February 2, 1996 issue.

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